2019 NBA Mock Draft: The dust clears from the NBA trade deadline

The doubters who said Porter should stay on the bench for the remainder of his freshman season in Los Angeles certainly had a point. After returning from a quad injury and his scuffle with Trojans management, Porter has been… bad. The freshman who stood out as a potential top-five selection during the first month of the season has disappeared during conference play. Porter hasn’t scored in double figures since Jan. 24 and before that, the last time was Nov. 20. The road back to being seen as a surefire lottery pick will be tough.

Here’s what NBA executives were telling Stadium‘s Jeff Goodman back in the middle of January: “He’s immature and undisciplined in every way – on and off the floor. He’s wild.”

Yet another felt it wouldn’t hurt his stock too much: “All he’s done is made people dig more and more. But I still think he winds up going somewhere from five to 15 in June.”

We wonder whether Porter still considers moving on from the Trojans to train and prepare for the draft on his own. Clearly, his relationship with the school that recruited him is fractured and his play is suffering as a result (as well as potential lingering effects from the quad injury). Perhaps that quad is the only thing keeping Porter at school — he wouldn’t have access to world-class sports medicine if he were to go to a high school gym and work with a skills trainer.

Yet Boston — or whichever team acquires this pick over the summer — pulling the trigger near the end of the lottery on a high-ceiling scoring guard is the lowest we see him falling.